The invention relates to computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems and methods and, more particularly, to methods for designing and manufacturing rubber (elastomer) process tooling used in manufacturing rubber (elastomer) tire components.
The manufacture of a pneumatic tire involves several processes (extrusion, calendering, etc.), manufacturing components and machines. The present invention involves itself with methods for designing (creating, modifying) process tooling to manufacture tire components. An example of a tire component is a tread. Of particular interest are tire manufacturing tooling which are xe2x80x9cpreformersxe2x80x9d. Preformers are process tools made of one or multiple pieces of steel designed and machined to meet process specifications of tire manufacturing components in order to give a specific xe2x80x9cshapexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cformxe2x80x9d to the tire rubber components. Preformers include xe2x80x9csplice barsxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9croller diesxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9ccalender rollsxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9chotformer rollsxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cdiesxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cinsertsxe2x80x9d, etc.). The present invention will be described largely in the context of designing and machining a splice bar. A splice bar is a particular preformer used in extrusion rubber process, and includes a number of cavities and others features which must be machined. A process tool such as a splice bar is typically machined on a computer numeric control (CNC) machine.
The design of a rubber process tool such as a splice bar can be performed using a CAD/CAM software package, such as Pro/ENGINEER (tm). Old software is antiquated and new equipment more demanding of software, design and machine of rubber process tools such as performers now require more advanced CAD/CAM software such Pro/ENGINEER.
Pro/ENGINEER (tm) is a leading 3-D product development solution, enabling designers and engineers to bring superior products to market faster. Spanning the entire product development process, from creative concept through detailed product definition to serviceability, Pro/ENGINEER delivers measurable value to manufacturing companies of all sizes, and in all industries. It increases business competitiveness by providing a platform that delivers more innovative, appealing products to market, creates flexible products for customization, and increases design collaboration across the extended enterprise.
These solutions extend the value of the complete product definition available from Pro/ENGINEER by providing the ability to develop product creation deliverables such as mold components, NC (numerical control) toolpaths, and inspection programs. In all cases, Pro/ENGINEER data in its native form is used as the basis for deliverable development. This eliminates the need for any data translation and allows the deliverable to update to any design change. The capability to automatically accommodate design changes enables true collaboration within the product development team. Early work in the production environment for planning and optimization is always preserved and available for re-use and standardization as a consequence of the solution architecture.
Pro/ENGINEER will be referred to hereinafter as xe2x80x9cPro-Exe2x80x9d, simply as an example of a suitable, generic 3-D CAD/CAM software tool with which the present invention can interface. Although it is a very robust and capable tool, Pro-E is somewhat complicated to use, requiring much user training and development time. What is needed is a way of interfacing with and using the Pro-E tool, which is more user-friendly, quick and still effective to control error, for a given type of application.
Returning to the subject of computer-aided design (CAD), a number of systems are know for accepting inputs from users which are remotely located from the computer whereat the CAD software program resides and runs.
U. S. Pat. No. 6,392,117 (LSI Logic Corporation), incorporated in its entirety by reference herein, discloses a distributed computer aided design (CAD) system includes a CAD server station and one or more CAD client stations remote from the server station but connectable thereto via a communications medium such as an intranet or the Internet. The CAD server station includes a CAD tool for performing CAD tasks and a communications interface. The CAD client stations include display and data entry facilities for displaying a design parameter entry document to a user and for accepting design parameters entered by the user, as well as a communications interface for transmitting entered design parameters via the communications medium to the server station. The CAD tool at the server station is configured to receive the design parameters from the client station, to perform CAD tasks based on the design parameters and to return processed design data to the server station via the communications medium. The client station can include a workstation with a web browser capability. The server station can be configured to respond to a request from a client station to supply a design parameter input form.
Although the parameterization of designs is fairly commonplace in digital logic design, it is maybe less commonplace in mechanical systems.
The following published US Patent Applications are also of interest.
2002/0012007, which discloses an Internet based design/drafting system;
2002/0021277, which discloses an interface for controlling a graphical image;
2002/0010522, which discloses method and apparatus for home building;
2002/0035451, which discloses a computer-aided design (CAD) project system; and
2001/0047251, which discloses a CAD system which designs 3-D models.
An overall object of the invention is to simplify and decrease the time needed by an operator/person (user) to design and machine rubber process tools, such as preformers.
According to the invention, an interface tool is provided for a user to interface with a CAD/CAM software package, such as Pro-E which is resident on the client computer or on a second server computer. The interface tool is resident on the client computer.
Parameters are input by the user onto web pages, and then are transferred to Pro-E by the interface tool. Pro-E outputs drawings, 3-D models and machining codes by using the information that was transferred from the interface tool.
The user can create or modify, and verify from various aspects, models of machineable physical items (products), such as xe2x80x9cpreformersxe2x80x9d associated with rubber process tooling. Pro-E can then create appropriate toolpaths and output the machining code for CNC (computerized numeric control) machines.
The server and client computer can be the same computer, or the client computer can be linked via the Intranet to the server computer, in which caser the design of a product can be accessible from many geographic locations.
A library is maintained at the client computer of a plurality (e.g., approximately 20) of generic models for machineable physical items (products), such as xe2x80x9cpreformersxe2x80x9d for producing various tire rubber components. Each of these models may contain more than 1000 variables (parameters) that are output from the interface tool to Pro-E. Every one of these parameters is changeable by the user. However, every one of these parameters is set up by an administrator with a default output value, and they may never be seen by the user if it is not desired that they be changed.
On a general configuration page, the user selects which features and options he wishes to change. For all features and options selected, the user will see a page with the list of all the parameters of the features or options. These parameters may be dimensions of the model itself, dimensions of the features of the model such as cavities, manufacturing parameters and/or tooling parameters. For many of these values, a limited range of acceptable values is established beforehand by the administrator, and if the user goes outside of these ranges, an error message appears on the screen, preferably with the acceptable range for the parameter being shown, which leads the user to pick (select or enter) an acceptable values. Some picks are done with pull-down menus from a selectable list, and some picks are done by clicking on xe2x80x9cradio buttonsxe2x80x9d.
Once the user launches Pro-E from the interface, the user is presented with a preferred xe2x80x9cstripped downxe2x80x9d version of Pro-E, which has limited functionality or could be presented with a complete version. For example, a Pro-E xe2x80x9creaderxe2x80x9d, which is already available. Using the stripped-down version, the only options that the user can use (besides a map key, which is for walking through the operations), are the abilities to rotate, pan and zoom the model to inspect it. Using the stripped-down version, the user may also take measurements of the model, change views on the model from a solid view to a hidden line view or wireframe view, or select from a list of saved views such as front, side, top, etc. Other than these relatively few functions, which can be taught to the user in a relatively short time (e.g., several minutes, versus several weeks), the user does not need to know or be skilled at any other functionality on Pro-E.
The areas of Pro/ENGINEER (tm) which are most used by the present invention are the xe2x80x9cbasic modulexe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9cmanufacturing packagexe2x80x9d which are used to create the toolpaths and output the machining code to the CNC machines.
Previous methods for designing rubber process tooling such as preformers involved a CAD/CAM programmer spending numerous hours building a model with a multitude of parts to output machining code to the CNC machine. This was very time consuming procedure and required the person to have a lot of computer and CAD/CAM skills. The method of the present invention does not require the person to learn the CAD/CAM software, and allows him to concentrate on the job at hand. The advantage is that there is a significant faster turnaround, from days to minutes, from the tire designer to the extruder output. It also lowers the cost while decreasing the numbers of errors. With this method, the skill level of the operator is reduced, and a CAD/CAM programmer or a machinist is not required.
Generally, by using a Web Interface, the operator/person does not have to be trained to use CAD/CAM programs.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent in light of the description that follows.